Statistical Analysis of Second Order Differential Power Analysis

Second Order Differential Power Analysis (2ODPA) is a powerful side channel attack that allows an attacker to bypass the widely used masking countermeasure. To thwart 2ODPA, higher order masking may be employed but it implies an non-negligible overhead. In this context, there is a need to know how efficient a 2O-DPA can be, in order to evaluate the resistance of an implementation that uses first order masking and, possibly, some hardware countermeasures. Different methods of mounting a practical 2O-DPA attack have been proposed in the literature. However, it is not yet clear which of these methods is the most efficient.